Posted on 05/17/2004 2:20:21 PM PDT by robomurph
Did decorated Vietnam War veteran John F. Kerry see military action in Cambodia? He says nothing about it on the campaign trail, but he stated it as fact on the floor of the U.S. Senate on March 27, 1986. In that speech, Kerry accused President Ronald Reagan of leading the United States into another Vietnam in Central America, accusing the administration of Nixon-like duplicity and saying that he should recognize it because of his Vietnam experience.
(Excerpt) Read more at insightmag.com ...
I suppose next he will be telling us he was a tunnel rat, too. Just before he was captured and held as a POW.
I don't honestly know, except that it's very strange for a naval LT. to be wandering around the jungle with a photographer around. More likely Kerry followed the photographer around until the guy filmed him.
The things I've read around FR is that the jungle pix were re-created with his own photographer.
Actually, from the river mouth to the nearest border with Cambodia....it is less than 100 miles....
Semper Fi
Thanks for the geography lesson.
Cam Rahn Bay is further north...it is quite a bit north of the mouth of the Saigon river.
That is what I find interesting...our op area out of Cam Rahn really didn't involve any, (if I recall correctly) delta-type environments...it was mostly coastal mountain terrain with numerous islands and lots of deep water.
In the An Thoi area, south of Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand, it was mostly shallow water and we were always churning up mud and nearly aground. The boats drew nearly 6-feet...much of the coastal An Thoi area is less than 6-feet deep.
PCFs 10, 45, 50
1965-66
Kerry is lying through his considerable teeth. Refer to the colored map in post #55, look at the large island that is colored the same as Cambodia...I can't read the entire name, but you can read "Phu Quoc"...at the extreme southern tip is where the base was for the An Thoi op area. We used to patrol the border of Viet Nam and Cambodia to the north east of the base, and east and south east...essentially the entire deltaic bay to the east of Phu Quoc island.
So, Ketchup Boy could be saying he was "in" Cambodia...but hardly under fire from the Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese, and the Cambodians. How the hell could he diferentiate all these guys shooting at him?? He is lying again, (still).
What a Clymer.
The Swift Base at Cam Ranh was a really nice spot. It faced the South China sea and when the monsoon season was on, waves used to come from the north and north east, hit the island to the south and bounce back north into our little bay. The surf was fantastic!!
The boats were actually moored on the bay side of the penninsula where we had a large dock facility.
I believe he suffers from the atrocities he initiated on his own in Vietnam. I wonder if, at the time, the killing felt good. He has been referred to as a 'loose cannon', or out of control, while serving over there by those in authority over him. It has been reported by fellow swift boat troops that kerry was actually ASKED to leave Vietnam.
This is a scary little boy who truly does not get it. Popularity ( and power ) is still his primary goal, kinda like in high school. He is not prepared to lead, he isn't even prepared to follow. He is flat out immature and stupid, like Ted Kennedy, and willing to aid and abet terrorism and crush the spirt of American will to defeat this nasty, snakelike clutch of bin pigpen terrorism tribe.
Bet bin pigpen and fellow impotent arab creeps have high hopes for a kerry win in November. It's just more fun, don't cha know, when America is weak, unwilling to combat terrorism attacks, and groveling for popularity among the hoods at the UN-like Syria, Iran, France and Germany.
Kerry moved to Coastal Division 13, Cam Ranh Bay
The above info from Kerry's website, combined with your information, would indicate that it is highly unlikely Kerry was in Cambodia on Christmas 1968. They claim he was in a firefight 12/24/68 without specifying the location.
All this may be moot, anyway. I can't find any evidence that he actually made the statement attributed to him in this article.
Your maps are great...I just happened to have been at both places Kerry was...just a couple years before he graced everyone with his presence. I was on the 17th Swift Boat crew to be deployed...pretty early in the program.
Your take on Kerry is very close to mine. Additionally, I knew several Viet Nam vets who were in country quite awhile and never saw combat but felt the need to "embelish" the experience.
This is my take on Kerry...he saw a little combat during the short four months he was in country and, to be part of the whole protest thing, he has tried ever since to embelish the experience. This makes him a big-time combat vet, earning him credibility...while, I suspect, he is ashamed of the fact that he very likely faked his very minor wounds, both for the medals, and to get out early.
He is the phoniest person to ever run for the presidency, and that says a lot after 4-years of Bill Clintoon.
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